I pressed the Link, keys dangling, to one of the control notches I found in the heart of the Connector node. It stuck there and linked the station's internals and Brick far away on Pax through the microgate on Redemption.
"This may take longer than you will find pleasant, Jake, but I will now breach the security of the base. Stand by while I break the encryption," Brick said.
I stood around, and then sat and then finally leaned in a relaxed pose against the wall and waited impatiently for Brick to crack the internal network's encryption.
Fifteen minutes later, he was done. "I now have control of all base systems. Defenses standing down. Taking control of orbiting defense platforms."
"Brick, does that mean I can land at the base now?" Marty asked.
"Stand by."
Another minute passed before Brick spoke again. "All defenses are now under my control. You are free to come in and dock with the station, Marty."
Chapter Thirty-Eight: In Connahr Base Mercury
NOW THAT BRICK WAS in charge of the station, the doors opened for me automatically. I liked that better than having to force my way through every single one. More importantly, however, the interior automated defenses didn't eviscerate me as I came through doors. Deadly little ceiling-mounted turrets covered strategic doors, dropping down when needed. They were clustered around the usual entry points of the base, and if I had been trying to force my way in through the exterior entry it would've been very messy indeed. It probably would've taken a platoon of guys like me, well-armed and supported, to force my way into the space to the normal entryway.
I entered the hangar in time to see the Redemption come to a gentle landing meters away. The front hatch opened and the ramp lowered. Marty jogged down and stopped in front of me, looking around curiously.
"Hey, it's just like Pax," he said.
"Yep, Union standard. Why build something unique when you can just snap everything together like Legos?"
"I guess so. Okay, we're here. Now what?" Marty asked.
"Now we find out what's wrong and we fix it," I said.
"I've determined what's wrong, Jake," Brick said. “This facility was damaged by tectonic action. The same quake that opened the rift you entered from also damaged the Connahr field's primary power source. The backups have been attempting to compensate but do not have the power required to drive a field the size of this solar system."
"Power shortages again. Do we have to fix a Fusion plant?" I asked.
"No, Jake. The Fusion plant is fully functional. It is only because of that and the extensive energy storage arrays built into the base that the Connahr field is still functional."
"What do you mean then? What's powering it?"
"A Solar Tap. The gravity lenses on the receiving gate are misaligned and the Tap is operating at approximately 5% efficiency."
My eyes went wide when I heard that. I'd seen the blueprint in the Union Common Knowledge Set. It was a set of blueprints, actually. The node that focused the solar energy and then harvested it, and the solar satellite that fed it. It was ruinously expensive in materials and Nanite Clusters. For some applications, for when you had literally astronomical power needs, you could use a Solar Tap.
The solar satellite loitered in low solar orbit, exposing an open gate to the sun at point-blank range. On the other side, that passed through a series of gravity lenses that focused and directed that energy into a beam suitable for harvest. The power output was prodigious, but when the Tap failed even a Fusion plant wasn't enough to fill the gap left behind.
Brick brought up a three-dimensional map of the Connahr base for us. It made Pax look like a hut on the moors compared to the ancestral estate of a great Lord. Sure, it was rather single-purpose. There was the hangar, the control center, a gate room, and a small barracks that was just big enough for four people to live in. The majority of the base was all about the Connahr field and the power generation and storage needed to support it.
Most of it was underground, stretching deep below us. Huge arrays of energy storage as well as a full-sized Fusion node. On the surface were the hangar, the ring of defense turrets, shield generators, and Sensor and Communications nodes.
In the center of it all was the Solar Tap, taking up a large portion of the base's total size. It was an enormous vertical structure, the size of a fat ten-story building.
The Connahr field generator itself was comparatively small, merely another full node right beside the Solar Tap near the surface of the base.
"Hey, Brick. The Sensor and Comms nodes are both working, right?" Marty asked.
"Yes, they're both fully functional."
"Have you—" Marty started.
"One of the first things I did upon taking control was to determine whether there was a connection to any Union assets in the system. There is not. If there was ever a Trade node in this system it is gone. The system gate also seems to be missing. Both of them would've been placed on the outer edges of the system, so we can assume that both of them have been taken by Ferals."
"Shit. That's too bad," Marty said.
"Now, how do we fix this, Brick?" I asked.
"The quake misaligned the gravity lenses that focus the Tap. The misaligned beam destroyed approximately 30% of the generation capacity. After the lenses settled, the new alignment was completely incorrect, reducing the energy output to approximately 5% of its full capacity."
"Then we just need to realign the lenses, replace the generators, and we're good?" I asked.
"Realign the lenses, yes. We do not have the materials to replace the generators.
